After a season-opening rout of Hampton, Maryland heads to Connecticut hoping to back up their Big Ten-best scoring performance from Week 1.
Granted, the 62-0 win came against a Pirates team that crossed midfield only twice — on its first and last drives of the game — and didn’t have a first down between the first and fourth quarters. The Terrapins’ total was the most by any of the Big Ten’s 18 schools across the first game of the season.
“We had, I think, 15 explosives [plays] — eight in the run game, seven in the pass game. So I thought there was balance. I think a year ago, we had nine maybe explosive runs all year long,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said Tuesday.
Maryland’s 365 yards rushing, led by running back DeJuan Williams’ 116 yards on three carries, was the most in a game since Week 2 in 2019 against Syracuse.
“By the end of the game, we weren’t throwing the ball. So obviously, we tried to do a good job of the young players establishing the standards of how we want to run the ball,” Locksley said.
Key to the ground success was blocking at the second and third levels, cited both by Locksley and quarterback Malik Washington after the win and by receiver Na’eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding on Tuesday.
“It’s a proud moment, and you know, our coaches tell us all the time that we haven’t had receivers blocking like you guys in a minute,” Gladding said. “So seeing that, it’s definitely a good feeling, and it just makes us want to go harder and make sure we seal up the edge even more so we can have more plays like that.”
A slightly stiffer test awaits in only the fifth-ever meeting with the Huskies (1-0) and the conclusion of a home-and-home series from 2024. UConn is coming off a rout of their own, 56-7 over Lafayette, the first win for first-year coach Jason Candle after a decade of success at Toledo.
“I know Jason Candle really well. Did a tremendous job at Toledo. Has put together a big-time staff up there at UConn,” Locksley said. “You look at the landscape of how he was able to bring a lot of the players that were successful for him there at Toledo to UConn; you start with the quarterback, and I think when you think about them on offense, it starts and ends with the quarterback.”
That quarterback, Kalieb Osborne, tallied 265 yards passing and 90 yards rushing while accounting for four touchdowns — two each on the ground and in the air.
“He’s a dual-threat guy, does a great job of operating their [run-pass option] system,” Locksley said, “extends plays with his feet, and also adds value in the QB run game.”
Maryland makes the trip with two players on its roster who have been practicing but will not play due to discipline from criminal issues over the summer.
Cornerback Dontay Joyner was a late rejoin to the Terrapins’ roster after his expulsion from the team following a guilty plea to misdemeanor charges of telephone misuse regarding threats against his then-girlfriend. Locksley invited Joyner to address his teammates a few weeks after he left, and the next day, players came to Locksley petitioning him to let Joyner back on the team.
“I was one of the players in the meeting,” defensive lineman Eyan Thomas said. “It was a whole group meeting. We decided as a team — and overall — that it was best for him to be a Maryland Terp, and we believe in him. Like I said, we believe in second chances, and that’s our brother.”
The other player, receiver Josiah Teasley, has been charged with second-degree assault, a misdemeanor, following allegations that he punched and choked his girlfriend. The freshman was also charged with violating a protection order just weeks later.
“I’ve never talked about how long players are suspended, how many games, what they’re doing, what we do, how we handle the issues that are in-house,” Locksley said of Teasley, whose charges were first reported Sept. 4. “We have decided to not play him. There is an office of student conduct issue that comes along with it that also has rules behind it. We’re following those rules.”
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